“Control what you can, cope with what you can’t and concentrate on what counts.”
Productivity and fitness guru Craig Ballantyne
- This “three C formula”, as it’s known, comes from a quote from ancient philosopher called Epictetus.
- Craig takes it a step further, as he applies it to the three parts of the day.
In the morning we have the greatest control over our lives.
- We control what time we get up
- We control what we eat first thing
- We control what we focus on for the first fifteen minutes to an hour.
Then, as the days goes on, we move to the second C, which is “cope with what you can’t control”.
- You can’t control traffic
- If your boss is angry, you can’t control that
- If it’s raining, you can’t control that
But you can control your response
- Your thoughts, words and your deeds.
Because you controlled your morning and you coped with the chaos that the world sent you in the afternoon, you’re able to concentrate on what counts in the evening.
- That means you can get home on time, you can have dinner with your family, you can help your children with their homework, read them a story, put them to bed…
- And still have time for yourself and your spouse, be able to wind down, get to bed at a good hour and have a good night’s rest.
- And then have another perfect day the next day.
Re-source: Restructure
Some of the best advice is for people to get up 15 minutes earlier than they do now.
- It doesn’t have to be 5am
- in fact, that’s a bad idea for a lot of people
- You get up at the right time for you.
If you get up 15 minutes earlier than normal, before everybody else is up in the house…you go down to your kitchen table with a pen and paper and identify your #1 priority in life.
- And you start planning and preparing.
- Want to make more money? Put together a sales plan.
- Want to lose weight? Put together a workout and nutrition plan.
- And so on.
That 15 minutes, first thing in the morning before anyone else gets up, working on your #1 priority…it adds up (to 72 hours or so a year)
- And it’s uninterrupted thinking that most people will never get if they try to fit it in at any other time of day.
craving and resource from “Change That Up” – changethatup.com
